PWI Weekly for November 3, 2025
The Mat Is Sacred: This Week, We Celebrate In-Ring Excellence
ACTUAL WRESTLING MATTERS. Sure, we love a funny skit or a dramatic back-and-forth interview segment, but for us, it’s what happens in the ring that truly counts. With that in mind, this edition of the PWI Weekly is all about the competitive side of professional wrestling. We hope you enjoy.
WRESTLER OF THE WEEK
Like a red phoenix that has risen from the ashes, Ilja Dragunov has ascended to a prime position on WWE’s blue brand. And “The Mad Dragon” wasted little time in doing so. After more than a year away from the ring due to injury, the Russia native returned to action on the October 17 edition of Smackdown—shocking fans by answering Sami Zayn’s United States championship open challenge.
This Dragunov was a different man than the one we had last seen. Bulked up with lean muscle and sporting a striking new neck tattoo, he not only appeared different but also carried himself as such. Wrestling like a man with a year’s worth of pent-up frustration, the former NXT U.K. champion threw everything (including himself) at Zayn in the contest.
In the end, it was too much for the incumbent champion, who deserves a world of credit for his weekly challenges that often were the highlight of WWE TV. Dragunov’s title win shocked many, but probably not the man himself. He has made a career out of overcoming adversity and beating the odds. With potentially his greatest win now in his rear-view mirror, don’t be surprised if Ilja Dragunov is about to embark on the biggest run of his life.
SPOTLIGHT ON …
It can be debated—and often is by those of us at the PWI offices—that there are too many championships in professional wrestling. A quick glance down the main WWE and AEW rosters shows that, sometimes, there are more title belts than credible challengers for them.
We may be a little facetious when we say that, but the point is valid. That’s why we always greet news of a new championship with some trepidation—except in the case of the AEW Women’s World tag team championship.
We get the argument that AEW already has a lot of title belts, but not for the women they don’t. In fact, for the stacked women’s roster that AEW boasts, the World and TBS titles are simply no longer enough. For a while now, the women locked out of those title pictures have had little else to pursue, apart from the glory of winning.
For the women keen to form alliances and fight alongside friends, there has been seemingly no reward at all. That’s all about to change. With the tournament now underway, we wait to see who the inaugural champions will be. Regardless of which duo prevails, All Elite Wrestling has a locker room full of hungry opposition gunning for the new gold.
A QUICK WORD ABOUT …
It’s a new era in TNA Wrestling, and that era is all happening in the ring. Throughout its existence, the company has often been plagued by backstage changes and political overhauls. Today, those changes are happening not in the boardroom, but in between the ropes—just as they should.
Mike Santana, Leon Slater, and Steve Maclin are all relatively new champions who are proudly waving the company flag. Even the veteran Hardys have found TNA to be a “Lake Of Reincarnation” and are enjoying their best in-ring results as a team in decades. It’s an exciting time for the TNA fans, who have, over the years, suffered through some lean times.
The motivated and dedicated roster the company now boasts can truly lay claim to making this “new” TNA really all about Total Non-Stop Action.
SPOTLIGHT MATCH
Take two of the world’s best wrestlers, give them a platform, and let them do what they do best. It’s matches like the ROH World championship clash between Bandido and Konosuke Takeshita (from Supercard of Honor 2025 in Arlington, Texas) that remind us why we love this sport.
I'm going to miss the US Championship Open Challenge! I appreciated the matches with John Cena, Fenix, Allister Black and Carmelo Hayes...But WOW! That match against Ilja Dragunov was nuts! I honestly thought that Zayne was well on his way to another open challenge victory, and was prepared to jump in the camp that would have said that a belt may be in Dragunov's future...as well as Superstardom. It was a great surprise to see the switch.
On a side note, completely unrelated to this week's Weekly- "Dirty" Dom Mysterio's run with the Intercontinental Championship has been just as much fun to see as Zayne's US reign on Smackdown! The battle on Saturday Night's Main Event with Mysterio and his title up on the line against Penta and Rusov was absolutely tremendous!